Editorial: Positive Neuroscience: the Neuroscience of Human Flourishing

Abstract

The burgeoning subfield of neuroscience focused on salubrious attributes of the human condition has begun to illuminate the complex biological basis of human functioning and flourishing. This has been referred to as positive neuroscience. Instead of focusing on pathology, research on positive neuroscience directs its attention on the neural mechanisms supporting flourishing, psychological well-being, resilience, and promotion of health. Previous studies have investigated the structural and functional neural basis underlying positive human functioning such as well-being (e.g., Van Reekum et al.on experimental and self-reported measures. However, this emerging literature is just the tip of the iceberg on the quest to identify the complex mechanisms of brain structure and function supporting human behavior. The Research Topic "Positive neuroscience: the neuroscience of human flourishing" provides an outlet for novel work in this domain and to advance our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of aspects of human flourishing.Kress and Aue begin this topic with a behavioral study on the effect of attention bias modification on optimism bias-that is, being overly optimistic-for future positive events. They found that extensive training in which subjects were required to direct attention to positive social information could enhance comparative optimism bias for future positive events, over, and above trait optimism.Wang et al. used an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies to investigate whether neural systems involved in prosocial behaviors and reward demonstrated overlapping or distinct neural signatures. They found that prosocial behaviors specifically activated the insula, temporal lobe, and superior temporal gyrus (STG), whereas reward specifically activated the lentiform nucleus, thalamus, caudate nucleus, parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Relatedly, Tunison et al. more specifically report on an event-related potential (ERP) component associated with reward processing, the reward-related positivity (RewP). The RewP is a positive deflection ERP component observed between 250 and 350 ms after reward feedback over fronto-central electrode sites, and its amplitude has been related to internalizing psychopathology. However, the RewP has been examined almost exclusively in response to financial rewards, and whether this ERP component is a general feature of reward processing remains uncertain. To address this, Tunison et al. used a point-based system of reward and found that RewP amplitudes were indeed larger for rewarded trials vs. non-rewarded trials. These data add to a growing literature that there are general properties of incentives regardless of the reward type.

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“…Specifically, subjective well-being has successfully been measured as a cross-cultural target by international institutions ( OECD, 2013 ), but not without scrutiny that calls for emic-etic agreement with local concepts ( Rappleye et al, 2020 ). Despite other critical measurement issues and ambiguities about operationalization ( Disabato et al, 2016 ; Linton et al, 2016 ), and broader debates on the role of socioeconomic indicators like sensitivity to changes in living conditions (e.g., Nakazato et al, 2011 ), genetic correlations support overlap for hedonic and eudaimonic well-being ( Baselmans and Bartels, 2018 ), and progress in positive neuroscience has delineated the structural and functional neural foundations for positive human functioning ( Kong et al, 2020 ), identifying the role of the precuneus ( Sato et al, 2015 ), in favor of construct representation. Matching well-being dimensions with adolescent outcomes has also been specified for interpretations about positive and negative mental health in emerging adulthood, which emphasize mental health promotion ( Winzer et al, 2014 ; Winzer, 2019 ).…”

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“…Much of this work has focused on uncovering links between brain circuits and human behaviour during states of ourishing. Broadly described as 'positive neuroscience' it seeks to unravel the neural mechanisms that support ourishing, psychological well-being, resilience and promotion of health (Kong et al, 2020). A recent meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies demonstrates that prosocial behaviour activates distinct regions of the brain that include the insula, temporal lobe and superior temporal gyrus.…”

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“…Much of this work has focused on uncovering links between brain circuits and human behaviour during states of flourishing. Broadly described as 'positive neuroscience' it seeks to unravel the neural mechanisms that support flourishing, psychological well-being, resilience and promotion of health (Kong et al, 2020). A recent meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies demonstrates that prosocial behaviour activates distinct regions of the brain that include the insula, temporal lobe and superior temporal gyrus.…”